Malcolm Pein’s excellently organised London Chess Classic, ended on Monday with a win for the Russian, Vladimir Kramnik who finished with a score of 16 points from 4 wins, 4 draws and no losses. Hikaru Nakamura was runner-up with 15 pts. and Magnus Carlsen third on 14.

The star of England’s quartet was Luke McShane, the only other player with a double digit score (13), while Westcountryman Michael Adams was completely out of form, coming last of the nine on just 3 points, having lost 5 games. This is in stark contrast to his recent performance at the European Team Championship where he won the gold medal for the best score by any Board 1 player. The two are probably not unconnected as, although a sedentary game, top level chess is extremely draining on the brain and nervous system and one needs adequate time to recuperate fully and be fresh for the next challenge.

McShane, who now works for Goldman-Sachs, beat all his English opponents, including this game between the two former child prodigies.

In last week’s position, Reinfeld’s “obvious” move was 1.Nf5 forcing Black to play Rg8, but then 2.Be5! adds a second mating threat that cannot be avoided.

This position came near the end of a 1953 game between Reshevsky (W) and Kotov. Black has just played 34…Qd3-e2 threatening the rook in the knowledge it can’t be taken because of the back rank mate. Yet White now found a winning move. Can you see it?